{"id":427689,"date":"2026-05-01T22:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/427689\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T22:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:18:10","slug":"study-reveals-how-uranus-mysterious-outer-rings-likely-formed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/427689\/","title":{"rendered":"Study reveals how Uranus’ mysterious outer rings likely formed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have finally figured out how two faint outer rings around Uranus<\/a> formed, solving a mystery nearly 2 billion miles away that had puzzled astronomers for years.<\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> examined the planet’s two outer rings, known as the \u03bc ring and the \u03bd ring, which orbit far beyond Uranus’ main ring system.\n<\/p>\n

“This study represents the most comprehensive characterization of the outer Uranian rings to date,” the study stated.<\/p>\n

Until 1977, Saturn was the only planet known to have rings, but after astronomers observed a star dimming multiple times as it passed the planet, that provided the clues needed to reveal the ring system around Uranus.\n<\/p>\n

However, unlike Saturn’s bright rings, Uranus’s are faint and narrow, making them more difficult to study, according to astronomers with W.M. Keck Observatory.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"\/A close-up view of Uranus and its rings. This is just he third time that NASA was able to see the planet’s faintest rings. Photo courtesy NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI<\/p>\n

To investigate the rings, scientists analyzed observations collected over decades by the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory. They also used observations from Voyager, the only spacecraft to ever fly past the planet.\n<\/p>\n

One of the study’s biggest findings was the origin of the two long-mysterious rings.<\/p>\n

“Based upon the composition and radial extent of the rings we suggest the \u03bc ring to originate via micrometeoroid impacts on the icy moon Mab, and the v ring via collisions between, and micrometeoroid impacts on, parent non-icy bodies embedded within this ring,” the study said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“These bodies must be composed in part of organic materials.”<\/p>\n

The study also confirmed a striking difference between the two rings: The \u03bc ring is blue, while the \u03bd ring is red.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have finally figured out how two faint outer rings around Uranus formed, solving a mystery nearly 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82,247,38,425],"class_list":["post-427689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}